Author's Notes: Eep! I really didn't realize that I hadn't updated in so long! I guess alternating stories makes it seem like you update more than you actually do. What a concept, huh? Well this chapter is back into the serious mode, but I'll try to add in some humor.

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Title: Dear Annie

Rating: T (or PG-13)

Summary: SasuSaku Sakura is excellent about giving others advice about their love life, but she is absolutely clueless when it comes to her own!

Pairings: SasuSaku, NaruHina, NejiTen, ShikaIno

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, but the plot is mine!

Chapter 10: Apple Green

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Dear Annie,

Finals are coming up soon, and I really want to do well. I'm struggling in more than one subject, and I really need good grades. You have no idea how much I need an A! The only thing is that I don't want to get a tutor because I can't stand feeling dumb around people. Besides, all of my friends view me as this really smart girl, their opinion would definitely lower if they found out I got a tutor!

Trying to Live Up To Expectations…And Failing

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Dear Expectations,

If you really want that A, you're going to have to suck it up and get a tutor. There's no way to sugar coat it. If your friends are really your friends, they'll understand that even you can struggle sometimes and they won't think any worse of you. If you care about your reputation that much, then you're going to have to chance it and risk a bad grade. What would your friends think of you then? The school gives free tutoring, so cost is no option. It's your responsibility to get whatever help you need.

Your Friend,

Annie

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

At the current moment, Sasuke felt like more of an idiot than he had ever felt in his whole life. This was saying a lot, considering he had been arrested for "sexual harassment" and put on the dating market by a certain pink haired woman and co. Fangirls still hadn't stopped swarming his door, claiming that they were his soul mate. That was nothing compared to this.

Kakashi, who also taught his advanced math class, was teaching his class about the art of ninjas. The current unit was tracking without being sensed.

"You will follow someone around during your lunch period, and you fail if you are detected." Kakashi had said. "Normally I would assign you a person to track, but I left all of the paperwork at my house." This was typical.

"Isn't that stalking sensei?" A kid asked.

Kakashi gave him a blank stare. "If you want to become a successful ninja, then you must learn how to stalk people. When the bell rings for lunch, focus in on one person and begin your tracking. Extra credit points will be given to any who are undetected at the opposite sex's hot spring and brings me a picture."

No one in the class thought he meant the male hot springs.

The bell rang, and since the next period was lunch, they went out to find their prey.

"Not so fast, Sasuke."

Sasuke cringed, and turned towards the silver haired man. Kakashi waited for the class to clear before speaking.

"Sasuke, we both know that you're way too advanced for such a meager assignment. I realize that the only reason you took this class was to get into the advanced placement ninja skills class next year, which, to be honest, you should be in now. Anyway, I've got a special assignment for you…"

Which is how the youngest Uchiha came to be in this predicament. "Tracking" Haruno Sakura during her lunch hour wasn't something he necessarily enjoyed, especially when she had Gaara with her. So far he had been undetected, but he still had to be on his toes. These were two very advanced shinobi and Uchiha Sasuke would not fail.

"Honestly Gaara, I don't see why you couldn't just talk to me at lunch. I'm hungry!" Sakura's hands were behind her head in a relaxed position, and she was pouting in this cute little manner that made him want to—

Get your mind back on the mission! Sasuke shouted to himself.

"I heard, you know." Gaara said, stoic as ever.

Sakura's shoulders tensed in a way almost unnoticeable. A tiny fraction that he wouldn't have caught if he weren't paying close attention. "Heard about what?" She was hoping that maybe, just maybe, he was talking about something else.

"Don't play dumb, Sakura." Gaara's face had never once strayed from the hallway they were walking down, but his eyes shifted over to the medic.

Sakura's hands were brought down from her head and she sighed in defeat. "How do you know?" she asked.

"Your mother."

Sakura cursed extremely unladylike before saying, "Look, I don't understand why it's such a big deal. Just because I had a dream doesn't mean…"

Gaara's eyes narrowed. "And the dream before that, and Suna…"

"Let's just forget about the time I was in Suna, okay?" Sakura cut him off.

They were now in a hallway that had a full row of windows on one side, letting optimum light shine in. Gaara's forehead protector with the mark of an hourglass sparkled as the redhead turned to fully face his cousin.

"You can't keep hiding forever."

The pink haired woman's body was hostile as she faced him, the kanji for love seemed even darker in this light, and it made him look more foreboding than usual. "You think I'm the one hiding?" Her voice was dangerous. "I'm waiting for the coward to come to me. I told him I'd be the best kunoichi of my time, and I'm going to prove to him that I am!"

She turned, and began a brisk pace down the hall. Gaara did not follow. Didn't even turn to look at her, just moved his eyes.

When she was decidedly out of earshot, Gaara spoke again. "Uchiha Sasuke, I know you are there."

With a 'tch', Sasuke came out from the shadows.

"I don't know what Kakashi was thinking when he gave you this assignment, but you are to forget everything you have heard here. It is not a matter you would like to get involved with and none of your business."

Before Gaara could leave, Sasuke blurted out, "Why?"

His rival's back was to him, so Sasuke could not see a facial expression if there was one. "She is living under the misconceptions that she's not good enough. She's constantly trying to prove herself, never showing weakness to anyone."

It was strange, because Gaara didn't seem like the talking-type, but here he was, giving Sasuke vague answers, yet answers nonetheless. The boy from the desert began to walk away, back towards the lunchroom. The Uchiha heir winced when he realized he was repeating himself, but asked "Why not?" After all, women were clearly weaker. It wasn't a terrible thing for a woman to be protected, that was just life. Gaara didn't stop walking this time.

"She was never allowed to."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Chemistry came around, and Sasuke and Neji were there earlier than usual. They were earlier than their partners, which was a definite first. So they began to talk about the Games.

Konoha High is a school founded by ninjas for ninjas. Sure there were basic sports that were standard in every school—football, baseball, soccer, etc.—but the highlight of it all were the Games. One-on-one matches with opponents that would beat you into the ground if you weren't prepared. There was a giant stadium in back of the school where they fought, the seats high and one edge of the arena was dotted with tall trees.

The object of it all was to use every ninja skill you had learned in the past year to defeat your opponent. It was a given that sophomores faced off with sophomores, juniors with juniors, and so on. Freshmen were only allowed to do milder fights as training. It was something like the difference between "Junior Varsity" and "Varsity".

There were three winners, one for every grade level. It was sophomore year when, surprisingly, Naruto had defeated Neji—something the Hyuuga was still bitter about—and Sasuke and the blonde faced off. A tie was declared since the two were near killing each other with no end in sight, their strengths evenly matched. It was the first tie ever in the Games' history.

There was also a division of women and men, and Sasuke knew for a fact that Sakura, as well as her friends, would be competing in the Women's Tournament this year. Last year, there was some medical epidemic that prevented her from coming. This year, she would pawn it off on other nurses, but she would be there.

Students began to trickle into class, and eventually the two geniuses took their seats. Once the late bell rang and everyone was seated, Gai passed out extensive note frames and gave a "youthful" lecture on atomic physics.

About ten minutes before the end of class, the overhead projector was turned off and Gai stood with a scorned face at the front.

"I am disappointed with your project results, all of you. You will all be receiving zeroes."

Sakura's jaw dropped in absolute horror, and Sasuke had his eyes narrowed in a way that signaled danger was brewing. Everyone in the class was shocked, pencils dropping, eyes narrowing, men crying…

Okay, so that last one was kind of queer, but you get my point.

"None of you gave me a proper chemical solution for anti-aging cream and I am solely heartbroken."

Anti-aging…?

"Wait a minute!" Sakura yelled, jumping up from her seat. "There wasn't any ingredient that you gave us that would even aspire to anything anti-aging! There is no mint in any anti-aging formula that I've come across!" She thought a minute, "Or peaches!"

"Sakura, take your seat. For that outburst the class will be receiving a twenty-five page essay due in two weeks." The entire class glared at Sakura as she sank lower into her chair. "Ha ha! Just kidding Sakura! I was planning on giving the assignment anyway, but that just gave me the perfect opportunity."

This time, the entire class, including Sakura, glared as he passed out the rubric. Twenty-five pages, minus a cover sheet, double-spaced, with any relating charts and/or diagrams.

"Beautiful." Sakura muttered under her breath.

"You will be working with the same partners that you were assigned the project with. I suggest you get together outside of school because there will not be enough time in class. Remember, this grade will replace those zeroes you got for a project grade, so I suggest you do well on it! YOSH!"

There was only about a minute left in class, and people were talking about this new development. Sakura turned towards the dark haired man beside her. "Yours or mine?"

"Mine. I've got a library for this sort of thing."

"Since tomorrow is the festival and all, let's start Sunday afternoon. I don't want to be thinking about school on the Ferris wheel."

Sasuke nodded in agreement. "Come to my house at one."

"Okay!"

Sasuke found it funny that there were dark circles under her eyes from lack of sleep, and she had looked pissed a minute ago, yet now she was smiling like nothing had ever happened.

"…never showing weakness to anyone."

"Why not?"

"She was never allowed to."

Gaara's words still haunted him, but Sasuke couldn't think past anything right now other than the pure beauty of her apple green eyes.

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Neji looked over at his partner. He really hated doing schoolwork outside of school. It wasted the little time that he did have that could be geared towards training. Tenten was fidgeting with her pencil, and she was probably pondering over the same question that was running through his mind.

"Whose house?" Neji asked her.

"Well, mine's not really suited…" She was trying to tell him gently that she really didn't want to do the project in her cramped little apartment, but broke off when she heard Naruto exclaim "Yay! I'm going to Hinata-chan's house!"

"On second thought, I think mine will do just fine." The girl with the buns looked at her partner and smiled. "That is, if you don't mind." She added.

Neji seemed to share her feelings on Naruto being at his house—while it was very large they would hear him in another wing of the mansion, and not be able to get any work done—and agreed. "I'll get some things we might need from my library."

"Good, how does Sunday sound?"

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Sakura returned home with her three cousins in tow. Normally, Suna students had to stay at a hotel somewhere, but the siblings insisted that they stay with the pink-haired teen and her pin-haired mother. Besides, it saved them money to later use at the festival.

It was during these times that Sakura knew that she got her patience from her mother. Three guests were hard to feed and house, but when two of those guests were boys, it seemed like they needed to cook enough food to feed an army every night. Despite Gaara's lean appearance, he actually ate more than Kankuro and Temari combined.

That is why Sakura was always a little jealous. It wasn't fair that men had such high metabolisms!

Tonight, they were having an early dinner so they could get everything ready tomorrow for the festivities. There was a fish for every person, plenty of vegetables, teriyaki, and a good solid metric ton of rice sitting in the center of the table. Dinner was not a quiet affair, what with Temari and Sakura catching up and reminiscing on old times, Kankuro's snide remarks at the trouble the women got into, and Mrs. Haruno's laughter. Gaara mostly sat and listened, with only a comment or two when necessary.

"So there was this one time when Kankuro was fourteen, Gaara was thirteen, and they were just beginning to go through the whole 'I'm in love with every hot girl I see' phase." Temari began. Kankuro glared at her. Gaara looked uninterested, but there was an underlying threat in his eyes should she decide to continue. Which of course, Temari being Temari, she did. "This girl that lived down the street from us—I really don't know what you guys saw in her, really—was having a slumber party to celebrate the end of the school year. They decided to spy on the girls, and apparently they weren't very stealthy because they got caught five minutes later. I come over to retrieve them and I find them both tied up to chairs, Kankuro wearing makeup and a bra, and Gaara somehow managing to make it out completely unscathed."

Sakura laughed. "They did nothing to Gaara?"

"Nah, everyone always thought he was too cute. He was supposed to turn into this dangerous playboy by senior year, but lo and behold, we got stoic instead." Temari glanced over at him. "I'm actually kind of grateful."

Kankuro, clearly not liking being laughed at, decided to pull revenge. "You think that's funny? This one time we caught Temari singing in the shower, so we decided to record it, she never was a really good singer." This time, Temari was going as red as an apple, while Gaara looked amused. "So after that, we eventually forgot about it, and when we looked for the tape, it was gone. The next week, it was played over the morning announcements."

"Kankuro!" Temari exclaimed, her face turning as red as Gaara's hair.

"Revenge is such a sweet thing, sis." Kankuro winked teasingly.

"At least I didn't tell your stories for revenge!"

"At least I wasn't singing some song by a hooker."

"It's Britney Spears!"

Gaara and Kankuro looked at each other. "Hooker." They said un unison.

Kankuro turned to her and shrugged. "All's fair and all that."

Temari had just about enough of his calm demeanor. She wanted an excuse to punch him back home! "And even after all that, you still wear makeup!"

The eldest boy was on his feet. "How many times do I have to tell you, it's war paint!"

Temari was on her feet too. "That's bull!"

In the midst of the fighting, Sakura's mother touched her arm. Once she had her daughter's attention, the blue-eyed woman motioned for her to follow. They walked out of the kitchen, and only Gaara noticed them leaving.

Sakura's mother took them out the back door and into the yard. The half moon provided only a little light, and the air was saturated with the smell of grass and rain, but there were no clouds in the sky.

"It's a beautiful night."

"Yes, it is." Sakura replied. She knew that whatever this conversation was about, it wasn't going to end well. Mrs. Haruno had the philosophy "don't say anything unless you can tell everyone in the room." If she wanted a private conversation…

The older woman let out a heavy sigh. "Look, Sakura, I need to know if you've had anymore of those dreams."

Sakura tensed, but gave a steady, "No, I haven't."

"If there is anything you're hiding Sakura, you really need to…"

"There's nothing." This time, Sakura's answer held a slight edge.

"If you experience anything out of the ordinary, the Hokage would really like to hear about them. She thinks that…"

"You told Tsunade-sama?" This time, Sakura was far from over the edge.

"She needs to know, being your boss…"

"Why won't anyone leave the subject alone?" Sakura screamed. "A dream! It was just a dream! Why are you all making me regret telling you anything?"

"Your father was a genjutsu expert, he could have easily…!"

"Why now?" Sakura yelled. "No one has heard from him in five years, why now?"

"You think I know how that man's mind works?" Mrs. Haruno hissed. "He's a lunatic starved for attention."

"Then why did you marry him in the first place?" Sakura hissed back.

"Don't you dare turn this on me! You're the one keeping secrets!"

Sakura knew that if she said anything to that, she was going to haul off on her own mother. Her tiny nails dug into the palms of her hands, and a tiny stream of blood ran down into the grass.

She pushed past her mother and headed towards the woods.

"Where are you going?"

"Away. Don't come after me." And Sakura took off into the trees.

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Sasuke couldn't sleep for some reason. Now, this wasn't an extremely abnormal thing to happen upon, since Sasuke found himself awake in the middle of the night for seemingly no reason at all. Usually, he would watch TV or go to the kitchens, but tonight he didn't feel like doing any of those things. His onyx eyes rolled heavenward and he growled before forcing himself out of bed.

The most logical thing to do was to train. It was only eleven at night, and he didn't need that much sleep anyway. He walked into his closet an pulled on a black tank top—that his fangirls would just die if they saw him wearing—over the black pants that he slept in. He walked over to his dresser and equipped his shuriken pouch, black with the Uchiha crest, with a few weapons before strapping it on his waist in the back.

He exited the mansion and easily managed to escape the patrolling guards. He flitted from branch to branch until he came to his training spot.

…or what was left of it anyway.

Trees had been splintered in the middle, and the force had knocked down those who had been unlucky enough to have been behind it. They had been uprooted and shattered into millions of tiny shards. The ground was dangerously uneven, and patches of grass had been torn up by the roots and were now flung in all kinds of directions. Sasuke was aware that there was noticeably less water in the lake as well.

He was also aware that there was someone else in the vicinity.

Before he could give it another thought, however, a body came flying towards him, weapon brandished. Sasuke pulled a kunai of his own and parried the attack. The Uchiha jumped backwards and tried to make out the figure, however it was in silhouette, so he couldn't see a face.

His opponent lashed out at him again, and he couldn't help notice that their technique was rather messy. However, the person in front of him had forced him on top of the lake, which was a small feat in and of itself. Sasuke looked around, but the person had disappeared into the woods.

They were still watching, though. He could feel it.

There was a spike of chakra to his left, and a giant tidal wave rose up far over his head. He thanked his speed, and managed to get to a treetop before water flooded the ground below him.

He was so interested in the scene before him that he almost didn't notice the body flying straight at him until it was almost too late. He swung around and just managed to jump to dry ground as he heard the upper portion of the tree crack and fall to the ground.

Wait a minute…he only knew one person with strength like that…but it just couldn't be…

His suspicions were confirmed when his attacker jumped down and dove at him through a beam of moonlight, illuminating her uncommon pink hair and raised fist.

Sakura…

Sasuke came only slightly to the side and tackled her when she was close enough. He pinned her arms to the ground, straddling her so that she wouldn't try and injure him or herself. He got a very good look at her from this vantage point. Her messy hair, rumpled clothes, and darkening scowl were the features he immediately noticed, but the one thing that made him absolutely rigid was the blood on her knuckles. Her blood.

He enclosed one of her wrists in his larger hand and brought the limb closer to him to get a better look. She had done herself a number all right, there was hardly any skin left on her knuckles. He also noticed there were also large splinters stuck in the tissue. Those would be a pain to remove.

"Sakura…" He breathed, eyes wide.

The pink haired woman before him narrowed her eyes before catapulting him off of her. She jumped up and landed a few feet away from him. Her green eyes were murderous when she yelled, "Fight me!" and flew at him again.

He caught her head on this time, turning her around so that she was back to chest against him and he was holding her arms firmly in front of her.

"Stop this." He growled into her ear. He felt her shiver against him, but she was still in a killer's state of mind.

"Fight me!" She repeated. "I need you to fight me!"

"She is living under the misconceptions that she's not good enough…"

"I can't do that." He stated calmly, rationally.

"Why the hell not?" She screamed.

"…She's constantly trying to prove herself…"

"Calm down, Sakura." There was a slight edge to his voice this time, which made her still before she continued.

"Bite me!"

Sasuke decided to try a different approach, since this one clearly wasn't working. He put his chin on her shoulder, only getting his face close enough so that she could feel the hot breath on her cheek and neck.

"Sakura." His tone was somewhere in between a purr and a light growl, but it made her start in his arms.

"W-What?" She cleared her throat nervously. "What?" This time she was more curt.

"Look at me, Sakura."

She refused.

"…never showing weakness to anyone."

Sasuke made the very bold move of releasing one of her hands to turn her chin in his direction. She took a step back when she noticed the black fading into crimson, but he just held her even tighter to his body.

Sakura's knees buckled and she felt herself being carried. This wasn't like the other times he had turned his Sharingan on her, he'd knocked her out those times. Now, it was only meant to paralyze, so her body would go limp and slightly numb.

Sasuke found a patch of dry ground in the moonlight, and sat her in between his legs, so that her head was resting on his shoulder. He worked at pulling the shards of wood out of her hands steadily, calmly.

Once he was done, he returned her to her normal state—where she seemed a little calmer—so that she could heal them fully. Healing chakra worked at knitting together the broken skin and tissue, and once she was finished, there was no sign that anything had been there at all.

She leaned against his chest, her head still slightly muddled, and whispered, "I'm tired, Sasuke."

Somehow, he didn't think that she meant she was sleepy.

Sasuke said nothing, but instead ran his fingers through her hair and let her lean on him until she fell asleep. He picked her up and looked down at her sleeping face. The Uchiha's heart clenched as he wiped away a tear that had escaped with his thumb.

"She was never allowed to."

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Gaara was waiting when he brought Sakura to her own backyard. Sasuke's rival was standing there, arms crossed, almost like he expected the Uchiha heir to bring his cousin home any minute. His eyes looked at her state, and he frowned before sighing.

It was true that Gaara never could sleep, which is why he always slept on the couch downstairs. That way, he could get up and move around in the middle of the night and not disturb anyone. Also because Kankuro had claimed the only guest bedroom, and Temari was sleeping in Sakura's room on an air mattress. It would be awkward sleeping with his brother, but it would be even more awkward if he had to sleep in the same room as two women.

Gaara's jade eyes looked into Sasuke's. Both faces were completely devoid of emotion, but the thoughts of the two men seemed to flow to one another anyway.

The redhead walked forward and took Sakura into his arms, he gave one last look at Sasuke before heading inside and shutting the door behind him. The Uchiha wasted no time in flitting into the confines of trees.

Not a word was exchanged between the two.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

It was Saturday morning, and all of Konoha was buzzing. Every man, woman, and child were thinking "festival!" They would wait for the time that the festivities opened—nine A.M.—before rushing into town to try to get the best seats, the best popcorn, and the best prizes. Even the vendors in the market were on a festival-high, lowering their prices outrageously to make people buy from them. It usually worked.

The majority of the festival was held by the Hokage Tower, and the area surrounding it. There were all sorts of games and roller coasters that were built for this very reason. One day of laziness and bliss.

Sasuke himself was getting ready today, dressing a bit more casual than usual. It was common for the women of the village to dress up for such an occasion, going all out to look their best. The guys, however, dressed as normal. As Shikamaru would put it, it was too troublesome to put on nice clothes.

Sasuke dressed in faded jeans and put a black short-sleeved shirt over a white long sleeved one. He minimally ran his fingers through his hair and decided he looked presentable. He grabbed a biker style jean jacket—zips up with a button at the neck, he left the button undone—and walked to the garage.

He didn't feel like driving today. Besides, it would be way too crowded for a car of any sort of the street. He grabbed his helmet and sat on his prized red and black Ducati motorcycle. He started the ignition and sped off towards town. It wasn't a long ways by any definition, but it would give him a chance to show off his new set of wheels.

He parked, and walked down one street, looking for people that he knew. So far, all he had encountered was a bunch of screaming children that didn't look like they would relent any time soon.

His cell phone vibrated in his pocket, and he flipped it open.

"Sasuke." The person on the other line greeted. "Where are you?"

"I just walked in, where are you?" Sasuke heard distinct cheering in the background.

"Naruto is participating in a ramen eating contest. Neji isn't here yet."

Sasuke smirked. "How's the dobe faring?"

The dry voice on the other line replied, "He's winning…by a mile."

How typical.

"I'll meet you guys there." With that, the line went dead.

So Sasuke continued to walk down the streets, avoiding little children and the parents running off after them. Vendors were selling bolts of fabric and dolls and lace fans to young women. They seemed to go for it eagerly, wanting to touch whatever they saw. Absently, he wondered what Sakura would be wearing. She probably wouldn't want to wear anything fancy, but that blonde friend of hers, Ino, would probably force her into something. He smiled at the thought in her wearing something pretty.

He passed a booth selling fake ANBU masks, but he paid no mind to those. He had plenty of them at home—real ones.

So caught up with his thoughts, Sasuke didn't notice that there was a person in front of him until he'd bumped into him. Sasuke blinked, and the person turned around. "I'm sorry, I guess I wasn't watching where I was going." The man said.

Sasuke looked at the man and realized he was wearing one of those masks. His entire body stilled as he realized, with something akin to horror, that he was staring into all too familiar apple green eyes.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Author's Notes: Again, sorry for the long wait. I really don't mean to on purpose, I promise! This chapter seemed different writing for some reason, not bad, just different. Anyways, cliffhanger at the end, wheee! Oh, and in the next chapter there will be interactions between some of the other characters! I'm starting to miss them. This chapter was eared towards the whole "past issues coming to haunt…ooo scary!" type theme. Then again, maybe that's just me.